Removing Rubber Crumb Deck Coating - i.e. Rubaroc
 

I have a pretty large pool deck covered with 'Rubaroc'. Rubaroc is trade name for rubber crumb with a resin binder. It is applied anywhere from 1/16" to 1" thick over cement.

My surface was poorly applied, there are thin spots in high the high traffic areas, and it has faded. I've top coated it with resin, I've fought with the installer, my colors are no longer available, and I'm tired of seeing little rubber bits at the bottom of my pool.

I'm going to bite the bullet and pay for flagstone.

Now I need to remove 1,200 sq ft of this rubber coating. I think the best way is a propane roofing torch and a 6" wide scraper. When the rubber is mostly gone, I will grind the cement to get rid of the rubber residue. I think a week of work should do it.

Any other ideas? 3,500 psi pressure washer does nothing to it, wire wheel does very little.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1719408225.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1719408244.jpg


?

Perhaps a naive response from a lazy guy but…If you’re installing flagstone, why not simply go over the rubber stuff?

That sounds like a horrific job, especially in the dog days of summer!

If we had a thread on worse jobs someone ever had to do this would be no. 1.
I'd rather be working on my roof.
I can't see how all this goo has not crept into the concreate. Heat will push it in further?
Maybe grinding will be needed?
Be nice to find a product that you can just put on top?

fify ;)

I could do a dry lay (with sand) of the pavers, but that method is inferior to a wet lay (mortar) in terms of longevity and appearance. It would also cause a height issue and my pool edge.

I expect to grind the surface after....yea, it won't be a fun week.

Sure, but I'm married. So....

That looks like a very nasty job . The company that put it down how do they suggest it be removed ?

I have no experience with this but I think you are on the right track with the roofing torch method. After that, I would rent from Home Depot a floor buffer with the diamond grinder blade (that is what I used for my concrete floor in my garage). I would get as much removed before the grinding/sanding to keep as much out of your pool as possible.

Could you freeze it with dry ice then lift/scrape/chip it off? Maybe heat it with the torch first then "shock" it with dry ice? Or maybe just dry ice on a hot sunny day might do it? Hmmm...

Hah, when I saw the pic in the OP I said to myself, well, just get one of those 3' scrapers and a roofing torch and peel it off in nice even curls like that guy is doing!

Took me a minute to see that it's a bit of an optical illusion.

Good luck with this project. It looks nasty and I don't envy you. Hopefully it will be less tedious than you imagine.

Their 'service' is the reason I'm removing the RUBAROC, they did a terrible installation, refused to do and warranty repairs, and asked for $10k to fix their shoddy work.

They also refuse to sell material to me to fix it.

That is exactly the plan. 'Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face'.

Just thought of a possibility . Not sure the technical name but it's a motorized floor scraper . Has a large flat blade used for tearing up linoleum floors as an example .

For the sake of time and simplicity.....

Why don't jackhammer the whole thing and haul it out in a dumpster.

Your are planning some kind of stone anyway.

To me the idea of trying to remove this from what's below sounds not just extremely time consuming but just horrific

If I were closer I'd offer to help...

But I'd be lying :D

I use a 6" razor Scraper for stuff just like that. It has a handle that twists and extends so you're always standing. I buy big packs of razor blades and change out often. I don't try to remove a full swath just a couple inches at a time. That way you can get a good stroke on it and get into a rhythm. It can make removal surprisingly fast. Then grind off the residue

I'm wondering if the residue would quickly clog a grinding disk - sand or diamond. I'm goind to go with what "2.7RS" proposed. I'm guessing the total expense and time difference would be not that much, and the end product would be superior. I'd at least get some estimates on it.

Have you contacted Rubarock direct to find how to remove it? I do not think torch will work, I think that Rubarock is a thermoset urethane not a bitumen like torch on roofing.

Renting a concrete scarifier would be a way to shred that material off.

Maybe start at an inconspicuous area with the torch and scraper. As mentioned, I’m thinking the leftover residue is going to clog up any sand/diamond wheels. Maybe two weeks…

Also, what about contacting Rubaroc, and complain about the installer. Obviously the installer doesn’t work for them, but maybe a little heat applied to Rubaroc, might get the installer back?

Good luck!

I have tried a torch and scraper, it worked. The torch softened the rubber and made it roll up better.

It is possible that a power chisel/floor scraper will work, I intend to try that. I think the manual scraper will be too much effort over too big an area, but it's easy to try.

The scarifier is a last option, it will make too much of a rubber mess. If it works it will throw rubber everywhere.

Removing all the cement is not an option, I had to cut two holes for a deck, and that was hours of hell. The entire pad would require a backhoe.

I do intend to grind and add a liquid concrete adhesive before the mortar bed gets laid.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1719497130.jpg
This is similar to the diamond bit concrete grinding pads we use but 16" that fits on a buffer. It won't load up, it tears it up

^^^ That looks like it would do the job!

Home Depot rents these for a swing machine:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1719502001.jpg


I have a swing machine, but I have to think it would dig in and grab on the rubber...a swing machine can be hard to control.

This is an option:


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1719502274.jpg

Or these:


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1719502580.jpg


Plus


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1719502608.jpg

Moving to a new house may be easier!
Good luck!

I would still try contacting Rubaroc, they must know a way to remove it. Have you figured a way not to breath in the fumes if you end up using a torch?

^^The tile breaker is good for chipping up tile but that's about it. The floor grinder is what you need and rentable. I often use my buffer but it's a heavy duty one. To control you gently lift up to go right, gently push down to go left and tilt for forward and reverse. Very subtle gentle control movements though. I've had guys put the machine right through the wall when first learning :^(

My dealer is a crook. Does business through an off-shore company, then claims he isn't responsible for warranty because 'a foreign entity did the work'.

And he is the national representative.

just be careful with the floor grinder/buffing machine. The natural inclination is to lean left or right to move it around but to steer it, you actually lift up or down. I highly recommend watching a few floor buffing fail videos first (ask me how I know :) )

https://youtube.com/shorts/LHyr3aWfrY0?si=ZqnRx9Dm60QJy3pf

I have one, so I have learned the up down lesson. I haven't crashed it. Yet.

Update:

The torch is not useful. On the thick sections that are the most challenging, the rubber is too good an insulator, the bottom never gets hot enough. The torch does work on the thinner sections, but those sections are fairly easy to strip.

I am using a handheld floor scraper, but 90% is being scraped up with a Hilti demo hammer. It's hard work, but it's coming off, inch by inch. I might be better off with a 'sharper' scraper for the demo hammer, more of sheet metal blade than a thick concrete demo tool, I'm looking to see what's out there.

It would be very nice to be able to cut it lengthwise into strips, then roll the strip up, but it's too tough to cut. I have an abrasive blade on my worm gear Skill saw, but that trips my breaker very quickly. The zip-cut blade on my angle grinder works fairly well, but it can't cut all the way through the thick sections.

It's gonna be a long week.

Finally finished Phase 1. It was back-breaking work.

Before:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1721740889.jpg

I ended up hiring a student to help me. It took about a week with two of us doing 6-8 hours per day.

In the thin spots the Hilti demolition hammer with a 'tile smasher' bit went pretty fast.

Unfortunately, when they installed the surface they did a levelling pre-coat in some areas, with just black Rubaroc and a lot of adhesive. Mostly it was 2-3" thick, but a couple of areas were up to 6".

In those areas I had to cut the Rubaroc into 6" wide strips using a worm-drive circular saw and a cheap carbide saw blade. Then the Hilti gun could slowly roll it off.

Helper at work:


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1721741300.jpg


Last night I finished the catch basin (draining rainwater to the back of my yard, and did a final scrape and sweep.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1721741411.jpg



The flagstone is going down today. I wanted to do it myself, but we have a wedding here on three weeks, and realistically, I would need two months to that area on my own.

(The fence keeps the dog from walking in where we have stairs).

-

What a difference. Can't wait to see it with the flagstone.

With you having to remove up to 6 inches, was the pool deck poured out of level or did it settle?

The pool was done about 30 years ago, I believe the plan was for brick or flagstone and then the deck portion would be level with the coping..

Nothing has settled, it was good plan that took 30 years to come to fruition...